Refrigerator Poets

Ever since Magnetic Poetry first appeared in 1993, it has been a cultural phenomenon. In those four years, “these little words scattered on a refrigerator door,” as Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky describes them, have turned up everywhere, from your best friend’s kitchen to the TV sitcom “Seinfeld.”

Made up of magnetized strips that can be arranged in a nearly infinite variety of ways, each set is like a mix-and-match game of literary charades, Scrabble with a creative edge. And if, at times, the whole thing seems a little, well, manufactured, Magnetic Poetry has also managed to carve out a place for what Pinsky calls “the composition of actual American people, produced not for profit but for the fun of it, and to satisfy that peculiar, deep itch to make something new.”

Given its appeal, it’s surprising that it should have taken so long for someone to compile this stuff into a book. Now, however, “The Magnetic Poetry Book of Poetry” (Workman) fills the breech. Featuring a foreword by Pinsky and more than 200 poems by a cross-section of writers--some professional, most not--the volume may not exactly be a glimpse into the heart and mind of America, but it is a compelling collection of snapshots, moments caught in shorthand and preserved.

Although Magnetic Poetry founder Dave Kapell and co-editor Sally Steenland have broken their collection into nine thematic sections, including “Daily Life,” “Love” and “Nature,” the book’s real strength resides in its sense of random musings, much like the best “refrigerator poetry” itself. One favorite: “She walks beside me / like jazz / coming over the backyard / fence on a warm / Sunday morning.”

For those who want to erase the line between reader and writer, the book includes a poetry primer, as well as a magnetic starter kit with about 100 words. It’s a limited palette, which is not necessarily a bad thing. As Pinsky says, “Limitation is one of the things the poet in us likes.”

(The editors will be reading Monday at 8 p.m. at Borders Books on the Third Street Promenade.)